Cassiopedia is a great website for educators. This is a project that aims at facilitating the teaching and learning of science. It has a wide range of resources that teachers can use in their lesson plans and with their students. Some of the videos included are also designed for students which makes it an educational resource worth introducing to your class.
Cassiopedia offers free high definition science education videos . " While the videos are self- contained, they are embedded in a larger story intended to generate interest in the science." The videos can also be found in the Beyond Campus section of iTunes U.
This website is very easy to use. It does not require a sign up or any software download. Just head over to its main page. Click on the tab named 'videos' and start browsing its content. The videos are organized into different categories such as Biology, Space, Physics, Evolution,General Science and many more. Click on any video and you will be directed to a page where you can have more info about it such as its description, title, duration and a link for download.
Online video training sites typically offer video or audio recordings of classes taught at colleges and universities across the nation. Users can tune in to these free-of-charge class sessions and follow along. While students can’t get credit for classes taken on YouTube, and iTunes U – as these do not offer degrees – the information in the lectures is often the same as what students get in live classes.
Online Video Training: Key Benefits
Online video training is growing in popularity. In August 2010, Apple announced iTunes U had surpassed 300 million downloads after only three years in operation. MIT’s OpenCourseWare project continues to add new classes at the rate of 50 a year, and YouTube EDU offers over 200 complete courses. Corporations like Volvo are also adopting the new technology to personalize training across thousands of employees worldwide.
Students are flocking to video training options because of its advantages such as:
Overcoming barriers of distance. In August 2010, American surgeons began giving counterparts in Nepal live video instruction on surgical techniques. This was a dramatic illustration of the power of online video training to overcome barriers of distance.
Facilitating frequent training. In some fields, and especially in technology, change happens rapidly. Online tech training is one way to meet the demand for frequent updates of knowledge and techniques. Professionals who many not have time or money to pay for refresher courses can take advantage of online video training to stay abreast of current trends or brush up before certification or licensing exams.
Using up-to-date communication styles. A Department of Education analysis of over a thousand studies of online learning found that on average, students did better under online learning conditions than with face-to-face instruction. A survey of more than 200 medical students found that an overwhelming majority believed that technology — including video game applications — would enhance their instruction.
Enhancing information retention. One study found that introducing a video element to instructional programs enhanced long-term retention of the material, perhaps because of the heightened visual dimension of the content.
Online Video Training: Best Practices
Clearly, online video training has several potential applications and benefits, but not all online video training is created equal. Users of online video training should make the distinction between the following forms of training:
Vendor-generated video. Vendors of various products, especially in the realm of technology, often produce videos instructing users on the correct application of their products. Online tech training using vendor-generated videos for specific products can be very effective, as long as the user understands that the material does not represent an objective overview of the entire field.
In-house videos. In-house videos can be valuable where the focus is on company policy or proprietary techniques. Where broader subject matter is concerned, it can be helpful to introduce outside expertise.
Accredited, academic online video training. Material produced by accredited academic institutions is likely to contain the highest-quality content, and can also be part of a formal degree or certification program which allows customers and/or potential employers to recognize the level of training an individual has received. In short, formal programs make sure that the acquired skills are not only useful, but that they are marketable too.
Online training can be a great resource, but it does have its limitations. For one thing, sites like YouTube don’t generally vouch for the quality of the instruction, meaning some courses may be pure brilliance while others may be little more than a series of PowerPoint slides and a lecturer droning on in the background. And unlike online computer certifications, most video training programs don’t allow for interactivity, so if students get confused, they’re on their own. Students needing in-depth instruction or those who are looking to tackle highly technical fields may find degree programs or accredited certification courses better meet their needs.
Online video training can come in many forms, but in the right format, it’s a valuable tool to update skills, prepare for certification exams, or finally audit that class on the history of rock and roll.
Debbie Lawrence is a content editor who primarily writes for anonline schooling blog. You can contact her at dlawrence2[@]quinstreet.com with any suggestions, questions, or comments. You can find her on Twitter here.
Documentary Heaven is a free website that provides free documentaries. It has a wide library that contains up to 2100 videos and will soon have more for its user base is growing up fast. After going through some of its features I decided to add this video resource to The Best Free Educational Documentary Websites I have been compiling here. Documentary Heaven is free and does not ask for any software download or installation. Users can start browsing straight away.Just like most of the documentary websites I have covered before, Documentary Heaven organizes its content into a wide range of categories such as Educational Human Rights, Archaeology, Psychology, Health, Evolution, Environment, Economics, Mystery, Nature, Philosophy and many more. The videos are sourced from different video platforms including, but not limited to, YouTube.
Documentary Heaven also allows its users to contribute with their own videos. There is a tab in the upper bar called ' submit ' which can be used for this purpose. There is also a Forum where users get to ask questions about documentaries or the like and get answers from others.
I do recommend Documentary Heaven to educators and teachers. Give it a try and I am pretty sure you will find content to include in your future lesson plans.
Documentaryz is a great web resource for educators. It offers thousands of documentaries for free. I have just discovered this website today and after reviewing it I think it is worth including in The Best Free Documentaries for Teachers list.
Documentaryz has a good user interface and is very easy to navigate. The videos included in its library are basically YouTube videos but there are also videos from other video hosting platforms. There are several categories that you can browse through to find your content such as Art, Animal and Nature, Business, History, Biagraphy, Military, Media, Funny, Music, Psychology, Environmental, ..and many more.
Documentaryz is free of charge and does not require any installation or software download. You also have the choice whether to open a free account or just use it as a guest user. If you register with them you will have added features such as being able to track your history of videos watched, organize playlists and interact with the community. If you are a teacher and want some media resources then consider Documentaryz you might find something interesting you can share with your students.
Teaching Channel is a great website for educators. It is basically a video showcase of inspiring and effective teaching practices. You can browse through hundreds of videos submitted by teachers like you and me. Videos feature different topcis such as classroom management techniques, videos showing how teachers carry out their lesson plans. Teaching Channel is a video resource that teachers should be aware of.
Content in Teaching channel is organized into different categories. You will find a category called Subjects under which are featured : English Language Arts, Math, Science, History Social Sciences. The second category is Grades, and the thrid one is called Topics where you can find videos on Planning, Class culture, Behavior, Engagement, Differentiation, Assessement, Collaboration, Common Core, New Teachers, and Celebrating Teachers. You can use these categories to easily navigate the site and find your relevant videos .
You will have to create your free account so that you benefit from added features such as being able to download video, take and save notes on each video.
I know all of you use video materials in their lessons but the question is are you really equipped with the right video resources to fetch your videos from ? Searching for a video on a search engine might take you into an ocean of results and junk websites. That is why educators need to always keep a list of 'trustworthy' video platforms that they can use to find educational videos to use with their students in the classroom. I have been covering quite many here such as TedTalk, Youtube for Schools, Youtube Teachers, Youtube Education, Explania,....ect.
Explania is one of my favourite platform when looking for tutorials and step by step guides. If you are a teacher then you must check out that website you will definately find materials to help you in your teaching. As a matter of example, I found out a video about Tsunami. Even though the clip is very short yet it offers a wealth of easily understandable information about how Tsunamis are created and the effects and damages they befall upon a place they hit. Check out this video to learn more.
Tilt View is a cool website. It allows users to watch the latest news report. It is more or less similar to YouTune Trends for they both stream what is currently hot on the media. Tilt View monitors news websites in real time and aggregates the breaking news to display in the form of YouTube news videos.
Tilt View is a very simple and easy to use website. It is also user friendly and does not require any kind of software download or sign up. Just head over to its main page and you will instantly see news reports get laoded up and start playing. You can use the buttons on the site to pause a video, skip to the next or last one.
" After canceling the cable service, started watching more ofetn news online. But visiting different websites to watch news from different sources seems hard work. Choosing which videos to play and clicking on each one made me realize there should be better way to watch watch news online. Created Tilt View so that it gathers important and current news and play it without having to do any work. "
Newsy is a good website for people who like to keep track of the latest news events in the world. Some people do not like reading news but rather prefer watching it and Newsy can help them do just that. It aggregates news videos from multiple sources and stream then on its homepage. Among the sources Newsy depends on in fetching its news stories are : BBC, CNN, ABC News, Aljazeera and several others. You can access videos from all these channels right from a single page.
You can either watch videos at random or sort them according to the category or tags such as the most popular, the highest rated or highest commented. What is really nice of Newsy website is the fact that above each video you will find the news sources and below it user comments, and text transcript of the video. It also allows its users to share the videos they watch either using an embeded code or via different social media websites.
YouTube Trends and TiltView are other similar tools that might interest you as well.
I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I just came across a very interesting video and want to share it with you here. By the way it has nothing to do with educational technology and mobile learning I blog about here.If you find this post irrelevent then just forget about it.
The video REALLY amazed me and I think it will you too. It features the car of 2012. It has all the latest technology you can even imagine and I just wonder how much it will cost. I dream to have one like this one day lol. Enjoy the video.
Explania is a great website that provides animated explanations. These explanations are included in videos and interactive infographics. I have been going through some of the clips it offers to its users and I was amazed by the high quality content it has. I am thinking this could be a great resource for teachers and students. You will find explanatory videos covering different topics such as biology, social media, geography and many more. Explania even lets you share these videos with others or embed them in your website using a generated HTML code as I did below.
It is completely free to watch and share the videos on Explania . You can also register with them if you want and have your own page where to organize clips and interact with others.
itv Wild is a great and inestimable video resource for educators. It provides a plethora of video clips and long feature programs about wild life and animals. I have already check some of its clips and I found them worth watching. They are very informative and educational. These videos can be shared with our students to introduce them to the notions of preserving wild life and keeping the natural equilibrium.
The content on itv Wild is neatly organized into different categories and tabs. You will find for instance in the home page tabs labelled : TV Shows, Animals, Competitions, Games. You click on any tab to explore its content.
itv Wild has a search bar on the top right side that you can use to easily look for and find clips. You can also check the section of the Most Popular Animal Searches to see what other people has been searching the most. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will find a section called Recommended for You where you can watch videos specifically selected to feature in that post.
Youtube Documentaries is a video platform created by an enthusiastic web developer to offer free documentaries to its users. It has nothing to do with YouTube except that most if not all itsscontent is from it.
" We are not affiliated with YouTube.com, or Google.com . We do however love YouTube.com and Google.com I happen to really enjoy watching documentaries - and I use YouTube.com to find them. It's an excellent source. I'm a web developer - so I put 2 and 2 together to come up with this website. "
I have covered several free documentary sites in my previous articles here and Youtube Documentaries is one of the best documentary resource in this list.
Multimedia sites where educational videos are offered for free are highly desirable for educators. Teachers are in constant need of video resources from which to fetch their digital support. It is not always easy to find secure and reliable video platforms and this is why we try our best to provide the best resources for educators here.
Youtube Documentaries is completely free of charge and very easy to use. You can even subscribe to their email notifications and whenever a new documentary is published you will get an email in your inbox of the link to this video. Youtube Documentaries also allows you to tag videos and share them with your friends. You can create a My Video page to keep track of the videos you have watched.
Documentaries in this platform are only 10 minutes long.So if a documentary is normally 50 minutes then you will find it divided into 5 parts each part featuring a 10 minutes clip. I have just finished watching a 12 minutes documentary of World War Two in colour. I love history documentaries but you can find all kinds of categories. If you want to give this website a try then head over to Youtube Documentaries main page and start watching.
With the release of YouTube for Schools, YouTube has finally joined the bandwagon of websites promoting educational content. It has been a major concern for teachers all over the world that the main resource of videos on the internet is most of the times banned in schools. The inappropriate content that accompanies videos in YouTube together with the mature subject matter and distractive ads found in most of YouTube pages have raised a red flag for any pedegaogical use of this video platform in formal classroom settings.It is true that there are many free web tools that can be used to overrun this problem but the thing is most of the schools have denied access to it.
Educators now can breathe a sigh of relief. Youtube for Schools has been designed specifically to tend to their digital needs. It features educational videos from several renowned educational partners (around 600 in total) includingSmithsonian, TED, Steve Spangler Science, and Numberphile. And instead of featuring irrelevant videos or indecent content on the playlists, Youtube for Schools features exclusive playlists of free educational videos. These playlists are also broken down into differentr categories such as Math, Social Studies, Language Arts, English and Science. These labels are further divided into corresponding grades.
This is what Brian Truang , Youtube Project Manager, said about Youtube for Schools :
"We’ve been hearing from teachers that they want to use the vast array of educational videos on YouTube in their classrooms, but are concerned that students will be distracted by the latest music video or a video of a cute cat, or a video that might not be appropriate for students.YouTube for Schools is just the latest initiative in our ongoing efforts to make YouTube a truly valuable educational resource, and to inspire learners around the world with programs like YouTube Space Lab. "
One of my favorite video websites is TED. I know many of you are already acquainted with the name but to those who still do not have an idea what TED is all about I would say that you are missing out on an inestimable resource of great videos. TED has been internationally recognized and from different academic and professional bodies as one of the best educational websites. It features interviews with the smartest thinkers of our age. It touches upon every category from entertainment to education. I personally find it the right place to get the necessary inspiration and encouragement to improve and boost my self and professional development.
Being as such, I have selected some of its most viewed videos that I want you to watch. Every single video of this selection has a lesson to teach us.I strongly believe that educators are agents of change and with clips like the ones below, the task can even be much more motivating. Enjoy the videos
1- First Video
This is a short video of a lecture delivered by the popular psychologist Philip Zimbardo. He talked about time perspectives and time management skills. Watch the video to learn more
2- Second Video
This is a great video by Kiran Bir Sethi where she teaches her kids how to take full responsibility of their learning . She gave us a good lesson on how students can positively contribute in their community change.
3- Third Video
This is one of my favorite videos. In 20005, Steve Jobs ( the late Apple and Pixar CEO ) addressed a huge number of Standford graduates in a very touchy and motivating speech. There are many lessons we can learn from his words and I believe that this speech is all wisdom.
4- Fourth Video
The generation of students we teach today are completely different from the previous generations. The first indication of this discrepancy lays in the numerous and various names used to depict today's generation and the people who belong to it. They are often referred to as Generation Y, Nexters, Baby Boom, Echo Boomers, Millennials, Generation Next, Generation Me, and Digital Natives. Yes our students are digital natives and they depend almost wholly on technology in their everyday life. Being as such, Paul Lewis has some observations for worth listening to in this regard.
5- Fifth Video
My last video for you is both funny and educational. Funny because of the way a parrot repeats what its trainer Stephanie White says to her and educational because it teaches us that with determination, perseverance, and dedication we can achieve great things in our life.
You can share these videos with your students and if you want to watch similar videos then head on to TED Talks.
Understand 9/11 is a website that provides reports about the tragedy that befell the Twin Centre and Pentagon on the 11th of September 2011. I know I should have published this earlier so that teachers planning to talk about these terrorist attacks with their students will be empowered with a plethora of videos and news footages all shedding light from different angles on these catastrophic events. I am sorry I just learnt about this web site but better late then never.
Understand 9/ 11 archives several reports about this event. The reports are categorized according to their date and the TV channels on which they were broadcast. To start watching any report just click on the report thumbnail to obtain an extended view. The view contains image thumbnails from the same television report. Click on any report thumbnail and the footage will automatically start playing.
I hope this website will help you find materials to consider for future coverage of these tragic events.
Qwiki is a great multimedia encyclopedia. It allows its users to browse through more than three million entries. I really like this kinda search engine and deciced to include it withing the Teacher Resources tab. Qwiki contains millions of popular topics that you can search very easily using their search tab. What i really like about Qwiki is the fact that it is powered by a smart technology that transforms static information into interactive stories giving it a whole different ”information experience”.
Some features of Qwiki
Here are the main services and features that Qwiki offers to its users :
It is free to use
It is very simple and has a nice looking interface
It has millions of multimedia entries
You can search any indexed term and qwiki will generate an information experience describing it
It has now started to allows users to interact with the information they read by contributing to it
You can watch , read, and listen to any Qwiki entry you search
You can also find related materials by clicking the “ Q” symbol that is under its play bar
You can embed Qwiki into your blog or website
You can also share your Qwikis with others using Facebook, Twitter, or Email options
How can i get started using Qwiki ?
It is very easy to use , just head over to Qwiki main page Type in a search term into its search bar or simply choose a topic from the featured topics on the homepage
Applications of Qwiki in education
As i said before Qwiki is an easy tool and educators can use it in different ways. They can browse it to look for topics they teach and get Qwikis to share with their students in the classroom. The Qwiki format will make students look forward to explore it. I think it is a better alternative to textbooks. That’s it about Qwiki – Multimedia alternative to Textbooks.
Human restore is a a great website for educators. It is a repository of free engaging documentaries featuring different categories. This website looks like John Locker: The free documentary website which i have covered in an earlier post. I know we need documentaries to include in our teaching from time to time but the problem is if you set yourself to look for some free ones then you would find yourself navigating the web endlessly and just to find if ever you are lucky , the ones you wanted. To save teachers’ time and help them better benefit from the net i organized a special page where i submit posts and links to the best free teachers resources. Look above and click on teachers resources to have a look at what you might have missed .
Human Restore is free and very simple to use . You do not need to sign up or anything . just head over to Human Restore main page and look at the categories column on the left hand side . Click on any category to bring up its components. Select the ones you want to watch and click on them . Yes it is this easy.
Applications of Human Restore in education
I strongly invite teachers and educators to have recourse to video resources such as Human Restore. Multimedia elements are very helpful in teaching and learning and students show more interaction and engagement when videos or audio clips are integrated into the classroom teaching. That’s it about Human Restore:Free educative documentaries . You might also like:
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